L.A. Noire isn't what some gamers may think it is. It isn't a truly open world game. It's very linear in structure. It isn't another Grand Theft Auto. It's more akin to a modern day adventure game. It isn't even primarily developed by Rockstar. It's a Team Bondi game, creators of The Getaway. Putting Rockstars' name all over it is a very smart marketing move, as their mass market appeal will get peoples heads to turn towards an otherwise niche genre. L.A. Noire succeeds in some regards, but falls flat on its face in others. The game itself is a mix between Shenmues' exploration and detective work, and Pheonix Wright Ace Attorneys witness interrogation. If you've never played either of those games, just know L.A. Noir is much less game than it is an interactive movie. You can never draw your weapon unless the games plot calls for it, and you can't cause the havoc most players end up creating in Grand Theft Auto. You're actions amount to driving, exploring, and talking to a multitude of characters. When the car chases, fist fights or shootouts occur, they are short and to the point. If a player happens to fail these scenes through death or otherwise, you can even opt to skip the action scene all together. This is all catered to a more casual crowd, who can't be bothered with typical videogame nuances. For the gamers out there, this will be one of the easiest games you've every played.

Driving around the open world city works well, as the vehicle controls feel spot on, but there's little to do. Growing up in Los Angeles, it's novel to see 1940's downtown and Hollywood recreated. Those that aren't familiar with L.A. may not care though, and some of it may be lost on them since many streets look similar, with only a few landmarks to tell them apart. The vast majority of the time, your character has a partner who will follow you around town. You can tap the button to get into a vehicle, or hold it to allow your partner to drive to a destination. This is extremely useful if you don't want to waste anytime getting from one locale to the next. If there's ever dialog between the two, you'll watch the car drive towards its goal while listening in, then fade to black and pull up next to your end point. If you're a videogame completist, the open city hides 30 landmarks to discover, 95 vehicles to drive, 13 newspapers and 30 film reels to find. Aside from those, there are 40 small street crimes to attend to. These are mostly chase sequences and shootouts, but account for much of the action to be found in the game. They have nothing to do with the overall plot, but completing them with give you experience that levels up your character. Leveling up rewards you with new clothes, and sometimes shows you where hidden objects are in the city. It also rewards you with Intuition points. These points can be used in the meat and potatoes of L.A. Noire, the crime scene investigations and witness/suspect interrogations.

The Intuition points make an already easy game even easier. When you approach a crime scene, you must look for clues and evidence. The investigations are the best executed portions of the game, although there are some problems with them. You wander around surveying your surroundings or listening to audio cues that chime in when there's a clue nearby. If you can't even be bothered with this, you can use an intuition point to show all the clues on your minimap. This undoubtedly saves you time, but holds your hand in such a way that makes it all seem rather pointless. Most players will just use these points when they're at a loss or frustrated. Again, it's just another step toward that casual market. Old school adventure games like Monkey Island gave you hints and whatnot, but no other game in the genre blatantly solves the puzzles for you. I strongly suggest not using them, since finding clues and evidence on your own will at least make you feel more involved with the police work. To go even further, if you want to turn off the audio cues you can do that too, but this will amount to most players mashing the "look" button around the entire crime scene. Either way you go about it, there is no challenge to finding clues or evidence, and it all boils down to finding what the game demands you find in order to move its plot forward. You can miss objects here and there, but doing so will barely have an effect on what happens in the games story.

The other biggest and brightest facet of L.A. Noir, is the interaction with witness/suspect questioning. During interrogations/interviews, you are presented with 3 options. Truth, Doubt, and Lie. After you select a line of questioning from your notebook, and listen to what the subject has to say, you get to select one of these options. The interrogations are, for the most part, extremely well acted. The characters faces are done by a new motion capture technology that really captures an actors ever so slight expressions. This is by far the strongest point of L.A.Noire, and anybody can see it's the games shining moments. Sadly, the main character Cole is easily the worst actor or worst written character in the game. Cole is unlikable and due to the 3 options of Truth, Doubt, and Lie, he can act extremely bipolar. The problems with the interrogation/interview scenes really start show as the game progresses. One moment you'll be calmly questioning a suspect, the next you'll be screaming bloody murder if you select "doubt". Perhaps more dialog options would be better for suited for this line of questioning. Even if you select Lie, and Cole begins to yell accusations, you can simply back out if you don't see any evidence of your claims in your notebook. Cole apologizes and you go back to being the good cop. This seriously kills any cohesive dialog exchange between the two parties and can be jarring. After each line of questioning, you get to see a score of how many Truth, Doubt, and Lie you choose correctly. This seems like such an arbitrary thing to reveal, because even if you upset somebody to the point that they'd clam up, the case will go on and the eventual outcome would remain mostly the same. It's really just a small game of reading faces, and you can tell by the actors facial expressions if they're being honest or not. Overall, it doesn't affect enough of the story, or plot, or even outcome of the case.

L.A. Noire really just hands everything to you on a plate. Even if you don't solve anything yourself, plot points will just fall into your lap. Evidence will be found, suspects will run, and you'll be funneled through the story no matter what transpires. There isn't even any true repercussion for any of your actions. At the end of every case, you get a rating. Unless you really care about your score, it will be of little meaning to you. Even if you manage to run over a pedestrian crossing the street(which happens rarely as they'll mostly jump out of harms way) nothing will come of it. You're along for the ride in L.A. Noire, and although enjoying a story is entirely subjective, I felt the story was very weak. The atmosphere is great and the opening chapters really draw you in, setting the mood for the rest of the game. But even from the beginning tutorial missions, the controls become an issue. Shooting, fist fighting,and running/chasing on foot are all clunky. The cover system works, but barely. All of this has been done better in other games. It's not terrible mind you, but it's all seemingly an after thought and filler to a game that just wants to be a crime drama.

It's difficult to feel involved in a game or film when you don't care for any of the characters. It's like a complete non-event. The writing and narrative trip over itself numerous times and apparent critical plot points aren't properly introduced or justified. The whole game in itself seemed to be tied together by frayed threads and the ending just isn't meaningful because of this. The investigating portions are interesting at first, but become monotonous once you've been through half of them. There is no real sense of accomplishment or reward other than adding one more entry to Cole's notebook. The interrogations/interviews are a highlight, but also become repetitive after a while. Overall, L.A. Noire looks good, sounds good, but is hardly a provocative game. It's a good effort for a genre uncommon in todays' videogame market. I'm sure it will sell well and be talked about mostly because of the Rockstar name attachment. If anything, L.A. Noire can serve as a solid precursor to furthering this mediums cinematic flair. As a game, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Tags

	Shenmue Dreamcast		Escape From Monkey Island PC		Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Nintendo DS		Grand Theft Auto IV PlayStation 3
	The Getaway PlayStation 2